All hail Lloyd LaCuesta: Iron man of local TV news

A mere “congratulations” seems a little weak for KTVU reporter Lloyd LaCuesta, who announced this week that he’s retiring after 36 years of covering every brutal storm and quadruple homicide since “Afternoon Delight” was No. 1 on the charts. I’ve briefly worked one of those general assignment crime/mayhem/apocalyptic weather beats, and they’re like dog years. Really, the press releases should say Lloyd is retiring after 253 years on the job.

So all hail Lloyd LaCuesta, breaking news juggernaut of the Bay Area. Readers of my parenting blog, The Poop, adopted Lloyd after I wrote a piece about underrated local TV reporters. Everyone seemed to love him and have a catchphrase in their house (“Reporting from hell, Lloyd LaCuesta …”) that referenced his nose for the roughest assignments on the Bay Area beat. When I reached out to Lloyd for a response, I liked him even more. He was humble and gracious and thankful. It was clear he didn’t crave or expect the attention. I also started hearing from colleagues, who told me about his good work off camera, most notably as the first president and veteran presence in the Asian American Journalists Association.

Lloyd started at KTVU in 1976, and retires June 15. I haven’t decided what we should get him — personally, I’d like to see Lloyd spend his last day in the anchor chair with a cup of coffee, while Frank Somerville drives out to whatever hail storm, Wal-Mart riot or 14-car pileup crops up that day. (I even started a Facebook page on the subject, which I won’t actively promote until I find out if that’s something Lloyd would want.)

Below is an interview with Lloyd, reprinted from June 29, 2010. It’s almost two years old, but I think it works even more now than it did back then:

Q: Do you remember your first assignment?

A: I do remember. My first assignment was to do a back to school story, about mothers shopping for back to school clothes. It was way back in 1976. I was at a Walnut Creek department store — I think it was The Emporium …

Q: They didn’t immediately send you to a rainstorm or a triple homicide?

A: No, no … not on my first day. I look back, because people think I do a lot of breaking stories and stories that are outside. About 30 years ago I was up there in Alaska, in one of those types of stories, where a portion of the newly built pipeline had blown. I remember it was a Saturday, and I got a call from the desk, saying “The news director wants you to jump on an airplane and get up to Alaska.” … A few hours later I’m in Alaska next to the pipeline filing stories.

Q: That’s the kind of story I always remember you doing in the 1980s and 1990s. Back when everyone had more money to travel.

A: That sort of became the nature for me during my career. I was always doing breaking stories — doing what I call parachuting stories. Flying to some area, and trying to do a fast study of what’s going on, and then reporting on it. But I sort of thrive on that. I’ve always liked really having to survive on my own wits.

Lloyd hard at work. (KTVU)

Q: Do you see forecasts for bad weather and say to yourself “Oh, s—, not again.”

A: (Laughs) Someone said “Lloyd, you should have a memorial up there at Highway 17 where you do your live shots.” … I remember once I made some comment on the air, where I said essentially “Dennis, I guess it’s pretty warm back there in the studio. But as you can see the rain is going sideways into my face right now.” I think I got a memo back from the news director. … When I hear the forecast, I know already, “Get the weather gear out. I’m going to be out there tonight.”

Q: You like your job?

A: I do, I do. but I’ve paid the price. I have high blood pressure and other health problems. I spend a lot of time talking to young people and I also teach at a local college. I just want everyone to know there’s a cost for being that kind of reporter. I just got married but I was also divorced for 20 years. Jumping on airplanes and trying to be the first reporter on the scene wasn’t very conducive to a good family life. I was always gone. … I look at my career and I have a lot of satisfaction, but I missed my daughter’s 5-year-old birthday party. I can never get that back …

It took me a long time to realize that family life is more important. I’m happy and I’m proud of what I’ve done, but there were prices that were paid.

When I got divorced, I threw myself into my work even more. I won an Emmy a year after I got divorced for my coverage of the Los Angeles riots — the Rodney King riots. It took me a while, but I look back on it now and think “You were hiding, Lloyd. You were hiding in your job and blotting things out.” That’s what being this kind of breaking reporter allows you to do, but I don’t think it’s healthy. It’s a very selfish kind of pursuit. You’re there, as they say, to see history being made, and meet a lot of interesting people. But unless you share that with someone — truly share it with a spouse or someone else — what’s it really worth?

Q: What’s the most scared you’ve ever been on a story?

A: Covering the L.A. riots. I was born and raised in Hawaii, but we moved to Los Angeles when I was about 12 years old. I found myself in a city that I sort of knew, and I saw urban warfare on the streets. I was scared because you didn’t know where the lines were. You couldn’t really hide behind a police line. It was complete chaos. Here you were in an American city, and people were looting and pulling guns.

I remember being in Koreatown in one day, and there was some rioting and looting of a big shopping center. And then we heard some gunfire and saw people running and screaming toward where we were. Unlike other people, we didn’t start running away. We ran towards the shooting. This was in a big parking lot. I told the cameraman “Let’s just zig-zag — that way the bullets won’t get us.” …

I was one of those stupid reporters. Looting would be going on and I would be walking up to people as they’re carrying stuff, saying “Excuse me sir, why are you looting this store?” And I was thinking, any moment now someone was going to pull a gun and say, “This is why!”

A: When I started we were shooting film, we weren’t shooting tape. We had to put it on a bus and get it back to Oakland. I had one cameraman I worked for a long time named Willie Kee. Willie since passed. Then I worked with Nick Soras, who quit the business to become a cop. Now I work with Eric Meacham three days per week.

We really do become a team. You get to the point where you don’t even need verbal communication. Camera guys are really the unsung heroes of the news business.

Q: Do you have a good Dennis Richmond story?

A: Dennis is such a consummate professional. By the time I got to Channel 2, Dennis was working more as an anchor than a reporter in the field. I didn’t interact with him a lot at work, but socially we did a lot of things. Dennis, I think has this image of this very serious competent and respectable journalist, which he is. But there are some stories … I think they’re better for off camera.

Q: I met him twice. Both times he was eating junk food. Until you see it, it’s impossible to think of Dennis Richmond eating potato chips. … How about you? You’re very serious on TV, too. What do you do for fun?

A: I’m a normal person. I like to kick back and watch a football game. I’m a tennis player. I take a lot of frustrations off on that ball. I love to read — I read a lot. Now in my newer phase, with my new wife, we like to just go off somewhere where nobody knows us. I’m also at the age where I’m watching little grandchildren grow up, too. I have two daughters — one lives in Italy and one’s a photographer who lives in Los Angeles.

Q: How many grandchildren?

A: (My daughters) haven’t had any children. But Lisa has three grandchildren. I think one of the reasons we got married is they got to the age where they were asking. “Is Uncle Lloyd married to Nana?”

Q: Is there anything you would like to add?

A: No, just that I’m surprised that people think what I do is worth writing about. I’m just doing my job. A lot of us go into journalism because it’s an ego satisfaction thing. I grew up as a little introverted quiet kid in Hawaii who just read a lot. I dreamed of doing a lot of things and going to places.

When I was 16 years old, I was a brown kid that most of the counselors said “You’re going to some shop and do vocational work.” When I was 16, I took a journalism class as an elective, and I had an old teacher named Virginia Bailey, who was a retired newspaper reporter. She said to me once “You can make a living out of writing, and you have gifts and you have talents.” She was my inspiration. From the age of 16, all I wanted to be is be a reporter. And I’ve lived my dream.

Lloyd and his wife Lisa. (Courtesy Lloyd LaCuesta)

PETER HARTLAUB is the pop culture critic at the San Francisco Chronicle and founder/editor of The Big Event. He takes requests. Contact him at phartlaub@sfchronicle.com. Follow him on Twitter @peterhartlaub. Follow The Big Event on Facebook.